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Memories of Eddie Riggins didn't die with him in Vietnam

A photo from the second time Eddie Riggins joined the Marines and successfully completed boot camp shows Riggins, fourth row down from the top, 10th from right, and another Northeast Ohioan who joined with him, Wayne Stovcik, top row, seventh from left.

CLEVELAND, Ohio – Eddie Riggins may have been gone some 46 years now, but the 14-year-old kid from Cleveland who tried to join the Marines is still remembered here.

Riggins, who had lied about his age to enlist in 1961, almost made it through boot camp before he was discovered and sent home. He re-joined the Corps in 1967 after attending Glenville High School, and was killed a year later by friendly fire in Vietnam.

The young Eddie Riggins (left) was not allowed to join the Marines. At right is a photo of Eddie when he actually became a Marine.

A recent story about an author in Washington state, Frazier Strutzel, who is writing a book about his Marine training with Riggins in 1961, prompted two Northeast Ohioans to contact Strutzel.

Wayne Stovcik, 64, of Strongsville, said he joined the Marines in 1967 and traveled with Riggins and 10 other Cleveland-area recruits to Marine boot camp training at Parris Island, SC.

He remembered Riggins as "really kind of a quiet guy who blended into the woodwork. He never got in trouble, never drew attention to himself. He just kept to himself and did what he had to do to get through boot camp."

Stovcik was unaware that Riggins had tried to join the Marines at age 14 until he read about it in the recent story. "That took a lot of guts," he said.

He also read in the story about Gail Seavy-Miles, of Washington, who said she befriended Riggins when he was stationed at Moffett Field, Calif., and was a bouncer at an officer's club on base. But as Stovcik recalled, "He was tall and gangly, definitely not bouncer material."

He never saw Riggins again after boot camp, and Stovcik said that he, too, was sent to Vietnam where he flew on 348 helicopter missions and "never got a scratch on me."

Joe Jones, 65, of Warrensville Heights, also remembered Riggins, as the cousin he met after moving to Cleveland from Alabama when he was 16. They often hung out together, watched Ghoulardi on TV on Friday nights, went to the same high school.

Jones described the Eddie Riggins of those days as "complicated. You didn't really know what he was thinking.

"He didn't fit in real well. It seemed like he stayed home most of the time," he added. "He wasn't anti-social. He just wasn't really outgoing."

Jones said Riggins' first name was Edgar, the same as his father, but he called himself Eddie. Others knew him as "Junior."

"It was a bad home situation," Jones said. "He was an only child, and his father was just never around, he was always gone. He never talked about it, but I could tell he was unhappy."

Jones said Riggins never told him that he'd tried to join the Marines at age 14. He didn't know about it until he read the recent story about that attempt.

"I think it took a lot of pain in his life to want to do something like that," Jones said. "It makes me sad to think that something was pushing him that hard to want to join the Marines."

Jones said he and Riggins talked about joining the Marines while they were in high school. "Young men back then were fascinated with the Marines. They were more glamorous than the Army," he said.

"After he got killed, I didn't want to go nowhere, but I got drafted," he said.

Jones also was sent to Vietnam and served with the Army's 1st Cavalry Division, spending most of his time, as he recalled, "just trying to survive."

When Riggins was killed, Jones went to his cousin's house after the funeral and stood in the bedroom where the two had hung out together, watching Ghoulardi, planning their futures. "I could feel him in the room," Jones recalled.

And when he only recently found out about Riggins' first attempt to join the Marines, Jones remembered another aspect of those early days that suddenly made sense.

Back then, try as he might, he could never best the smaller and lighter Riggins whenever they wrestled around.

"I was quick, but he'd always get the best of me," Jones said. "Now I know why I couldn't tussle with him and beat him. He'd already had some training in the Marines."

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